Return, departure and social and legal protection of the Ukrainian labour migrants became some of the COVID-19 pandemic challenges due to travel restrictions and labour market changes. The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) established the Labour Migration Task Force in order to protect the interests of the Ukrainian labour migrants and represent their needs before the Ukrainian and foreign governments.
Pavlo Sadokha, UWC Regional Vice-President in Northern, Southern and Western Europe, became the Chair of the Task Force.
The Task Force will address the following issues:
- Protecting the rights of the Ukrainian labour migrants in the countries where they are located;
- Influencing government policies on foreign labour migration in Ukraine;
- Reintegration of labour migrants returning to Ukraine.
In May, the Task Force addressed Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine, calling to timely and effectively inform about the changes of the rules of entry and departure from Ukraine, publish the updated information on relevant government online resources and inform the public.
Also, in May UWC Task Force representatives jointly with the International Charitable Foundation Caritas in Ukraine held working meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration to discuss the current issues of foreign labour migration. The focus was on the issues of migration processes in Ukraine and key areas for collaboration. Specifically, the participants discussed involving a wide range of government officials, academic and civil society institutions, as well as experts to develop the government foreign labour migration strategy.
UWC has consistently supported the rights of labour migrants. Legal framework for ensuring the rights of labour migrants is an important part of this work. UWC actively contributed to drafting and adoption of the Law on Foreign Labour Migration and continues its work to improve the legislation on the issues linked to the foreign labour migration.
“Global migration processes have undergone a lot of change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ukrainian World Congress collaborates with partners to develop a response to the challenges of these extraordinary times and protect the interests of Ukrainians globally, including in the issues of labour migration” – emphasized Paul Grod, UWC President.
